The Leopard Hunts In Darkness Part 30

Despite his feelings, Craig was aware that Abel Khori was doing a good businesslike job of laying out his case in his opening address, even displaying restraint in his use of Latin maxims. The first of a long list of prosecution witnesses was General Peter Fungabera. Resplendent in full dress, he took the oath and stood straight-backed and martial with his swagger-stick held loosely in one hand.

His testimony was given without equivocation, so direct and impressive that the judge nodded his approval from time to time as he made his notes.

The Central Committee of the ZAPU party had briefed a London barrister for the defence, but even Mr. Joseph Petal QC could not shake General Fungabera and very soon realized the futility of the effort, so he retired to wait for more vulnerable prey.

The next witness was the driver of the truck containing the contraband. He was an ex-ZIPRA guerrilla, recently released from one of th. rehabilitation centres and his testimony was given, I ire the vernacular and translated into English by the court interpreter.

"Had you ever met the accused before the night you were arrestedf Abel Khori demanded of him after establis.h.i.+ng his ident.i.ty.

"Yes. I was with him in the fighting."

"Did you see him again after the war?"

"Yes."

"Will you tell the court when that was?"

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"Last year in the dry season."

"Before you were placed in the rehabilitation centrer "Yes, before that."

"Where did you meet Minister Tungata Zebiwe?"

"In the valley, near the great river."

"Will you tell the court about that meeting?"

"We were hunting elephant for the ivory."

"How did you hunt them?"

"We used tribesmen, Batonka tribesmen, and a helicopeld." ter, to drive them into the old minefi object to this line of questioning, my lord." Mr. Petal QC jumped up. "This has nothing to do with the charges."

"It has reference to the first charge," Abel Khori insisted.

"Your objection is overruled, Mr. Petal. Please continue Mr. Prosecutor."

"How many elephant did you kill?" many, many elephant." "Can you estimate how many?"

"Perhaps two hundred elephant, I am not sure." that the Minister Tungata Zebiwe was "And you state there?"

"He came after the elephant had been killed. He came to count the ivory and take it away in his helicopter-2

"What helicopter?"

"A government helicopter." 41 object, your lords.h.i.+p, the Point is irrelevant."

"Objection overruled, Mr. Petal, please continue." When his turn came for cross.e.xamination, Mr. Joseph Petal went into the attack immediately.

u that you were never a member of 11 put it toyo e fighters. That you Minister Tungata Zebiwe's resistanc never, in fact, met the minister until that night on the Karoi road--2

"I object, your lords.h.i.+p," Abel Khori shouted indigthe witness in nantly. "The defence is trying to discredit the knowledge that no records of patriotic soldiers exist and that the witness cannot, therefore, prove his gallant service to the cause."

"Objection sustained. Mr. Petal, please confine your questions to the matter in hand and do not bully the witness."

"Very well, your lords.h.i.+p." Mr. Petal was rosy-faced with frustration as he turned back to the witness.

"Can you tell the judge when you were released from the rehabilitation centre?"

"I forget. I cannot remember."

"Was it a long time or a short time before your arrest?"

"A short time," the witness replied sulkily, looking down at his hands in his lap.

"Were you not released from the prison camp on the condition that you drove the truck that night, and that you aereed to 2I've evidence-" "My lord!" shrieked Abel Khori, and the judge's voice was as shrill and indignant.

"Mr. Petal, you will not refer to state rehabilitation centres as prison camps."

"As your lords.h.i.+p pleases." Mr. Petal continued, "Were You made any promises when you were released from the rehabilitation centre?"

"No. "The witness looked about him unhappily.

"Were you visited in the centre, two days before your release, by a Captain Timon Nbebi of the Third Brigade?"

"No.

"Did you have anyovisitors in the camp?"

"No! NaP "No visitors at all, are you sure?"

"The witness has already answered that question," the judge stopped him, and Mr. Petal sighed theatrically, and threw up his hands.

"No further questions, my lord."

"Do you intend calling any further witnesses, Mr. Khorir Craig knew that the next witness should have been Timon Nbebi, but unaccountably Abel Khori pa.s.sed over him and called instead the trooper who had been knocked down by the Land-Rover.

Craig felt an uneasy little chill Of doubt at the change in the prosecution's tactics. Did the prosecutor want to protect Captain Nbebi from cross examination? Did he want to prevent Mr. Petal from pursuing the question of a visit by Timon Nbebi to the rehabilitation centre? If this was so, the implications were so Craig forced himself to put his doubts unthinkable, aside.

The necessity for all questions and replies to be translated made the entire court process long-drawn-out and tedious, so it was only on the third day that Craig was called to the witness stand.

and before Abel after Craig had taken the oath, illation, he glanced Khori had begun his exam towards the dock. Tungata Zebiwe was watching him intently and as their eyes locked, Tungata made a sign with his right hand.

In the old days when they had worked together as rangers in the Game Department, Craig and Tungata had developed this sign language to a high degree. During the dangerous work of closing in on a breeding herd to begin the b.l.o.o.d.y elephant culls during which it had been their -populating duty to destroy surplus animals that were over the reserves, or when they were stalking a marauding cattle-killing pride of lions, they had communicated silently and swiftly with this private language.

Now Tungata gave him the clenched fist, his powerful black fingers closing over the clear pink of his palm in the sign that said "Beware! Extreme danger." The last time Tungata had given him that sign, he had had only microseconds to turn and meet the charge of the enraged lung-wounded lioness as she came grunting in b.l.o.o.d.y pink explosive gasps of breath out of heavy brush cover, launching herself likea golden thunderbolt upon him, so that even though the bullet from his458 magnum had smashed through her heart, her momentum had hurled Craig off his feet.